Faithful Obedience

The Lenten journey continues as we navigate the path paved with stones of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Sunday Mass readings for the Second and Third Sundays of Lent unveil virtues of God’s most faithful, most poignantly the virtue of obedience. For by obedience we grow in faith on our journey to Easter.

Obedience (Gn 22:1-18)

The Book of Genesis contains the story of Abraham’s test given by God. Recall, it took a lifetime for Abraham and Sarah to conceive and bear a child. Yet by the mercy of God, Isaac was born, a true blessing and miracle. God asked the unimaginable of Abraham, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Filled with trust and obedience, Abraham did as he was asked without hesitation, even to the point of having Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain. Yet before the sacrifice was to happen, God’s messenger interceded, and Isaac’s life was spared. Notable is Abraham’s obedience, fully trusting in God’s willing to sacrifice his only son. God made a covenant with Abraham since his devotion was authentic. He was promised countless descendants, a superabundant blessing forever. 

This account draws to mind a future sacrifice of an only son for the sake of many. This son too carried the wood of his sacrifice up a mountain. That wood would become the altar of fulfillment for all who believe and worship. This son was God’s only son, our Lord, as St. Paul writes, “He (God) who did not spare his own son but handed him over for us all” (Rom 8:32). And again, “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father” (Phil 2:8-11).

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph #177 states, “To obey (to hear or listen to) in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.” 

Am I obedient in my faith in God? Do I respond without hesitation when I hear his call?

Thou shall (Ex 20:1-17)

It is with obedient faith we are called to respond to God’s commands, as written in the Book of Exodus. Not so much a set of rules, the Ten Commandments are given with love from God to his people. 

“The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is a path of life: If you love the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply” (Catechism #2057). 

The covenant with Moses is a dialogue between God and mankind. God initiates as mankind responds in faith. God invites us to communion with him and others on this, the path of life through actions which require love, obedience and sacrifice. Am I loving God above all? Do I honor the name of God? Am I taking time to worship God, resting from my labor? Am I honoring my parents, my marriage and others? Am I respecting and preserving life? Am I speaking truth? Am I grateful for my family and for the material goods I have? Am I walking the path of Lent by becoming more familiar with the Ten Commandments?

Transfigured

If obedient faith is our response to God’s commands then the Ten Commandments is our response to life in Christ, for “when we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of his mysteries, and keep his commandments, the Savior himself comes to love, in us, his father and his brethren, our father and our brethren” (Catechism #2074). By his life, death and resurrection we are transformed. 

Such was this revelation in the Transfiguration: Jesus’ divinity unveiled and his glory shown forth, as the voice of the father was heard, and the Holy Spirit appeared as a cloud that covered the mountain. Witnessed by Peter, James and John to prepare them for what was to come, Elijah and Moses appeared speaking to Jesus, as the fulfillment of the prophets and the law would soon pass through Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

“The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming, when he ‘will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body.’ But it also recalls that it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” (Catechism #556).

Lent gives us the space to grow in obedience of faith as we answer the call to holiness by living the commandments, and prayerfully submitting our will to God’s holy will. It is by his ever-present mercy and grace that we are empowered to continue our path to Easter with hope; hope in the resurrection, hope in Jesus Christ, hope in the promise of eternal life.

Year of St. Joseph

St. Joseph is a model of obedience. He did exactly what God asked of him without hesitation. May we, through the intercession of St. Joseph, be strengthen in obedience, trust and humble service to God. Amen. JMJ

Dow is the director of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis for the Diocese of Baton Rouge.